Microsoft

Principal Software Engineer

Microsoft$142K — $274K *
Enterprise Technology
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field and 6+ years of engineering experience in programming languages (C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Python) or equivalent.
  • Master's Degree and 8+ years of experience preferred.
  • Ability to meet Microsoft security screening requirements.
  • Proficiency in written and verbal communication in English.
  • Strong collaborative and negotiation skills regarding project outcomes.

Responsibilities

  • Architect complex end-to-end products with a focus on performance and scalability.
  • Collaborate with teams to resolve conflicts and dependencies effectively.
  • Translate customer requirements into technical direction in partnership with stakeholders.
  • Enhance AI tools and practices throughout the software development lifecycle.
  • Conduct insightful code reviews and mentor engineers to ensure code quality and compliance.
  • Design test strategies that cover edge cases and prevent regression.
  • Drive engineering excellence through automation and security practices.

Benefits

  • Opportunity to deepen expertise in distributed systems at cloud scale.
  • Influence technical direction across partner engineering organizations.
  • Work on a platform utilized by enterprise customers worldwide.
  • Mentorship opportunities within a collaborative team.
Full Job Description
Overview

Moving data reliably at cloud scale is one of the hardest problems in the industry, and it is the foundation every analytics and AI scenario depends on. On the Fabric Data Factory team, you will help build and own the Data Factory workload within Microsoft Fabric, the unified analytics platform. You will shape the pipelines, dataflows, and related tooling that let customers move, transform, and orchestrate large volumes of data across diverse sources and destinations, taking on challenges in throughput, fault tolerance, scalability, and cost efficiency.

We are hiring a Principal Software Engineer on the Fabric Data Factory team, where you will architect complex data integration products end to end, set technical direction across the full engineering lifecycle, and mentor engineers as you drive quality, security, and live-site reliability. Your work will span authoring experiences, runtime execution, monitoring, and diagnostics, in close partnership with teams across Fabric, Azure Data Factory, and Power Query. This opportunity will allow you to deepen your expertise in distributed systems at cloud scale, broaden your technical influence across partner engineering organizations, and grow your impact on a platform used by enterprise customers worldwide.

This role is based in Redmond and requires three days per week in the office.

Responsibilities
  • Architects complex products end to end by creating and iterating on design documents, evaluating trade-offs, and ensuring performance, scalability, and resiliency requirements are met.
  • Collaborates across teams to resolve dependency and ownership conflicts.
  • Partners with internal stakeholders to determine customer and user requirements for scenarios and translates them into technical direction.
  • Improves artificial intelligence (AI) tools and practices across the software development lifecycle, takes ownership of AI-generated assets, and experiments to improve capabilities.
  • Leads by example in code quality by conducting timely, insightful code reviews, upholding standards, security, and compliance, and mentoring engineers using automated analysis tools integrated into the build process.
  • Designs and owns test strategies that prevent regression, incorporate security testing, and cover edge and negative cases.
  • Builds testable code from the start and identifies hard-to-test areas for future rearchitecture.
  • Drives engineering excellence through automation, zero-touch deployment goals, security-as-code principles, threat modeling, and compliance evidence, and advocates new industry trends, tools, and regulations to peers.
  • Plans and delivers features with full lifecycle ownership by breaking work into tracked tasks, managing feature flighting and rollback plans, and automating deployments following safe-change practices.
  • Owns live-site reliability as a Designated Responsible Individual (DRI) by integrating telemetry and observability, responding to incidents within service-level agreements, driving postmortems and root-cause fixes, and improving troubleshooting guides and on-call practices.


Qualifications

Required Qualifications

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 6+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR equivalent experience.

Additional Requirements:

Ability to meet Microsoft, customer and/or government security screening requirements are required for this role. These requirements include, but are not limited to the following specialized security screenings: Microsoft Cloud Background Check:
  • This position will be required to pass the Microsoft Cloud background check upon hire/transfer and every two years thereafter.


Preferred Qualifications
  • Master's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field AND 8+ years technical engineering experience with coding in languages including, but not limited to, C, C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, or Python OR Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related technical field
  • TypeScript, or Python OR equivalent experience.
  • Communicates clearly and respectfully in both written and verbal formats, including emails, proposals, and reports, ensuring all parties are heard, understood, and aligned toward shared goals.
  • Demonstrates solid English language proficiency and oral communication skills to effectively give instructions, receive feedback, and collaborate with colleagues and stakeholders.
  • Fosters collaborative innovation by engaging diverse internal and external stakeholders in the creation and development of novel products, processes, and research.
  • Negotiates mutually satisfying outcomes by actively listening to others' objectives, representing the organization's interests, and finding common ground.
  • Designs and architects scalable products, services, and systems by applying sound engineering and design principles across the full development lifecycle.
  • Engineers robust, performant software solutions grounded in computer science fundamentals, including distributed systems, algorithm design, and scalable application architecture.
  • Enhances project and product execution by integrating planning, quality assurance, and lifecycle management practices to keep delivery aligned with strategic goals.
  • Applies a data-driven approach to problem-solving by extracting actionable insights from data and making informed, strategic decisions within the broader organizational context.


Software Engineering IC5 - The typical base pay range for this role across the U.S. is USD $142,800 - $274,800 per year. There is a different range applicable to specific work locations, within the San Francisco Bay area and New York City metropolitan area, and the base pay range for this role in those locations is USD $188,000 - $304,200 per year.

Certain roles may be eligible for benefits and other compensation. Find additional benefits and pay information here:
https://careers.microsoft.com/us/en/us-corporate-pay

This position will be open for a minimum of 5 days, with applications accepted on an ongoing basis until the position is filled.

About Microsoft

Microsoft is an American multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, supports, and sells a range of software products and services. Microsoft’s devices and consumer (D&C) licensing segment licenses the Windows operating system and related software, Microsoft Office for consumers, and the Windows Phone operating system. The company’s computing and gaming hardware segment provides Xbox gaming and entertainment consoles and accessories, second-party and third-party video games, and Xbox Live subscriptions; surface devices and accessories; and Microsoft PC accessories. Its phone hardware segment offers Lumia smartphones and other non-Lumia phones. Its D&C segment provides Windows Store, Xbox Live transactions, and Windows phone store; search advertising; display advertising; Office 365 Home and Office 365 Personal; first-party video games; and other consumer products and services as well as operating retail stores. Microsoft’s commercial licensing segments license server products, including Windows Server, Microsoft SQL Server, Visual Studio, System Center, and related Client Access Licenses (CALs); Windows Embedded; Windows operating system; Microsoft Office for business, including Office, Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, and related CALs; Microsoft Dynamics business solutions; and Skype. Its commercial segment offers enterprise services, including premier support services and Microsoft consulting services; commercial cloud comprising Office 365 Commercial, other Microsoft Office online offerings, Dynamics CRM Online, and Microsoft Azure; and other commercial products and online services. The company markets and distributes its products through original equipment manufacturers, distributors, and resellers, as well as online.

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Join Microsoft today and be part of a company that values innovation, leadership, and diversity in its workforce. As a global leader in technology and digital transformation, Microsoft offers unparalleled job opportunities that propel your career to new heights.

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Career growth at Microsoft is about more than climbing the corporate ladder; it's about continuous learning, expanding your skills, and improving your capabilities. With access to various leadership and training programs, you can evolve as a professional and make a significant impact within the company and on the global stage.

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Our hiring process is designed to identify true potential. Starting with a review of your resume, followed by interviews that assess your problem-solving abilities and cultural fit, we ensure that all candidates have a fair chance to demonstrate their strengths and potential to contribute to our team.

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Learn more about Microsoft
Size
181,000 employees
Market Cap
$1,762.4 billion
Industry
Net Income
$51.3 billion
Founded
1975
5 Year Trend
+15.5%
Revenue
$153.2 billion
NASDAQ

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